2021 WNBA Free Agency Resources
Everything you need to follow free agency this year
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January 15 has arrived and that means it’s officially the start of WNBA free agency season. Players and teams can now start to negotiate contracts which can be signed beginning on Monday, February 1. However, if you subscribe to our newsletter at Her Hoop Stats (and please click the button above to do so if you haven’t yet) you know that we’re thinking about rosters and the CBA year-round. Below is a list of resources we’ve been compiling over the past year to help you follow free agency better than you ever have before.
We published our initial list of 2021 free agents back in September when the regular season concluded. At the time, it was based on our understanding of who fell into the various free agent categories based on our independent reporting. The WNBA confirmed the official list of 2021 free agents overnight as they do every year at the start of free agency. Since it’s just released once, follow along with our 2021 WNBA free agency tracker that we’ll update as signings are confirmed. The tracker even includes links to our stats page for each player.
After the Seattle Storm won the 2020 WNBA Championship, we published an article for each team reflecting on their season and looking ahead to the 2021 offseason. More recently, we’ve added Salary Cap Sheets for each team that includes the details of every player currently under contract. The sheets can serve as a reference for you to understand each team’s cap situation including cap room and open roster spots. Again, we’ll be updating it as transactions and contract information is confirmed. Here are both the outlook articles and the cap sheet for each team.
Atlanta Dream - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Chicago Sky - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Connecticut Sun - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Dallas Wings - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Indiana Fever - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Las Vegas Aces - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Los Angeles Sparks - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Minnesota Lynx - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
New York Liberty - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Phoenix Mercury - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Seattle Storm - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Washington Mystics - Outlook and Salary Cap Sheet
Of course, those links provide you the facts you need. One of the highlights of our WNBA offseason was our Mock Free Agency Podcast where our opinions shined through. This was a fun exercise to gain a better sense of the contracts that players might sign and which players could have to move for 2021. We played the role of GM for each team as well as agent to simulate how negotiations might proceed in real life. You can quickly review all the transactions for a quick reference in our summary article, read Ben Dull’s reaction to each GM’s work, or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to the full podcast as well as our commentary podcast analyzing the results. Additionally, we also took a more statistical approach where we estimated the value of a player based on their 2020 Win Shares and the historical relationship between Win Shares and salary.
How will 2021 free agency play out? No one knows, but if we learned anything last year it’s to expect the unexpected. As you keep up with the news, we hope our work will provide you with better insight about the offseason.
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also buy Her Hoop Stats gear, such as laptop stickers, mugs, and shirts!
Haven’t subscribed to the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter yet?